It is so unbelievable, but after working to total exhaustion – because that is what my job demands it seems – my vacation has FINALLY arrived and I was so very happy I cant even tell! Four amazing weeks off!!! Oh my. I realize how blessed we are in Austria, to have 5 weeks off a year. I know. Israel people have 5 days off I think and they have a 6 day working week, good Lord.

As I am already in week 2, but watching Olympics nonestop didnt give me a chance to blog earlier, I was hooked to all the sport that we mormally dont get to see, I feel like cheating, but these holiday blog entries are a must to do every year! I love to look back on them and I also love to do them as I can proove to myself that I am using my time off wisely. Having said that….

It practically took me almost an entire week to get over my exhaustion. Unbelievable, isnt it. I spent a lot of time reading brilliant books, cuddled up on chairs or on the sofa. Fine with me. I finally finished the Lunar Chronicles and they were so very good, huge recommandation! I also finally read Harry Potter And The Cursed Child and I absolutely loved it. I do realize that J K Rowling didnt write it, but it still was so good, it had me totally hooked and I felt so happy in the end.

There were so many passages that made me so weepy and threw me deep into my thoughts.

Harry, there is never a perfect answer in this messy, emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as breathe.

I cant even say, but so many passages were so brilliant and some plotpieces…. oh so good! I realize some people are totally unhappy with it. Take it for what it is, give it a chance and enjoy it. I absolutely did! I really wish I could see the play, as the photos of it look amazing, but I highly doubt it will happen.

Garden successess and failures: my whole gardening seems to be going wrong this year. Did I do anything differently? NO! We seem to have bought bad – as in buggy – flower soil- So my very beloved window flowers didnt survive all too long and I was too tired and exhausted to dig them out and plant them new. Most of my other thingies one likes to plant, died. Oh well. BUT! And here is a huge but, my muchly loved sunflowers turned out Ok again, and arent they so beautiful?

Emma – I am not sure if I ever blogged about it that we got her fixed (LONG story) – is a spoiled little doggie girl. As you couldnt have guessed by having already looked at a billion photos of her. Oh bless her!

Other than that I did massive lots of swimming. This month so far I swam 44.250 m. If you think all this swimming makes me loose weight like crazy and reach my “ideal” weight I can only say….. HAHAHA! None of it! But good joke.

In my first week off of work, I totally enjoyed cooking. I wish I could afford to live really healthily, have fresh veggies all the time, but heck no! Healthy eating is insanely expensive! So in my one week of healthy cooking, I made lots of veggie burgers, which were so very good, veggy burritos and so on. Loved it all! And I found my love for avocados, which. you guess, are way too prizy as well. Shame! Some photos, some things were better than other. 😉

Buttermilk Pancakes

Grilled Bread with avocado and tomatoes plus lots of pepper.

Cheese and Jam Kipferl

Veggie Burger Perfection

Veggie Burger day 2

Potatoe Wedges

Veggie Burrito

I am hooked on Pokemon Go, as you couldnt have guessed. I usually play while biking to various locations, reached level 17 that way and then it happened. A police car spotted me and told me off. This must have been one of the most embarassing moments of my life. With my age. Shame and blush. But I do have my eyes on the beauty that I am biking by, like this or this:

The weather hasnt been too great this past week, so I dont have too much of a bad conscious of not going on adventures, and hikes and more adventures. It is ok!

I realize there is so much that I havent posted in the last few months… I will get to it, if it is worth to tell. Otherwise we are never looking back but straight ahead! One of my newer life mottos. Be well you all, I will return with a sum up of vacation week 2. With hopefully much more excitement now that the Olympics are sadly over. I hope it will pass as slowly as possible! With love!

Turtelinas Kingdom is run and created by Connie (aka Turtelina), a little mail carrier somewhere in Austria obsessed with turtles and probably
herself, too. She also happens to go for a degree in Psychology and German. This domain serves no other purpose than to please herself :).
If you want to know more, make sure to add me on Facebook.